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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24675982">He is the Grand Rider (with a dark past and a little bit of death in his breath)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madu/pseuds/Madu'>Madu</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night &amp; Related Fandoms, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Achilles and Diarmuid have a crush and don't know what to do with it, Arturia and Galahad are pissed off because they hate children who are turned into soldiers, Daddy Arthur just wants his child to be happy, Florence and Romani want to kill the Dursleys and dance on the corpses, Fou is the support animal for the treatment of depression, Gen, Harry becomes a Servant, Harry is lucky rank E, Harry thinks Ritsuka is too pure for this shit, Harry's Reality Marble will make you cry, He suffers very seriously, It's a level below the Lancers, Jack is also annoyed because Harry was abandoned when he was a baby, Joanne is a great psychologist and Harry is very grateful to her, M/M, Mama Bedivere is on a mission to make his baby Rider emotionally more stable, Mash needs a break from Ritsuka's upbeat and innocent shine, Mordred has a new little brother and she loves him, Romani is deprived of sleep and the author also, Sarcasm as a means of making friends, The Round Table adopts the baby Rider, and will kill anyone who tries to hurt him, because they are doctors and hate child abuse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 06:29:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,002</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24675982</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madu/pseuds/Madu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Ritsuka needs to summon a new Servant to help resolve a new Lostbelt in Britain, his luck in the EX ranking strikes again at the same time that a certain boy returns to the Throne of Heroes after fulfilling his bargain with the Great Grail.</p>
<p>The new Rider is ... strange. Strange, extremely sad and magically powerful, as well as gentle and completely antisocial. Ritsuka just wants to hug him and help him get over what happened before Rider died, actually. And learn what happened to him to make him so reclusive - not necessarily in that order.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Or the one where Harry Potter dies, but instead of going to King's Cross Station to talk with Dumbledore, he ends up headfirst on a new mission to save the world - oh, and Chaldea finally creates a therapy program for the Servants.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Achilles | Rider of Red/Harry Potter, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne | Lancer/Achilles | Rider of Red/Harry Potter, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne/Harry Potter | Lancer/Harry Potter, Harry Potter &amp; Fujimaru Ritsuka, Harry Potter &amp; Merlin &amp; Leonardo da Vinci &amp; Gilgamesh | Caster &amp; Cú Chulainn | Caster, Harry Potter &amp; Spirit Heroic EMIYA | Archer &amp; Gilgamesh | Archer, Harry Potter &amp; The Round Table</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>153</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue – At the same time, in different places</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>My mother tongue is not English and, unfortunately, I am extremely out of practice for something complex like writing. Most, if not all, of the story will be processed by Google Translate. If anyone is interested in being a reviewer or beta reader, I would be extremely grateful.</p>
<p>Good reading</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Harry Potter walks through the Forbidden Forest with the Invisibility Cloak on his shoulders and the Resurrection Stone clutched in his hand stained with an unwanted promise made in blood. He walks until he can no longer see the castle behind him, and there has barely been his own breath that is held back by the water-textured fabric that runs down his face; he silenced his shoes for a long time, and it's not like leaving tracks on the Forest floor made any difference to him - Harry wouldn't make his way back, at least not on his own feet, and he made sure that no one would follow him in what would be his last journey. He passes animal burrows, jumps through tree roots and dodges rocks, and it's incredible that he doesn't hesitate in his steps. Well, it shows that Snape was right about Harry in the end - he really was raised from the start like a pig to be slaughtered in the hands of a self-centered madman who inside was just a little boy afraid of his own death. Neither can survive as long as the other is alive - indeed, Harry should have predicted, or rather deduced, the moment Dumbledore said that some Voldemort was inside him when Harry was twelve and had just killed a basilisk and a piece of Tom Riddle's soul. Five of the seven horcruxes are gone and, apart from the one that was lodged in his head, now only Nagini remained, which he left to Neville, Ron and Hermione. Harry knew and trusted that they would be able to deal with the monstrous snake without his help - and a part of Harry, one that he secretly agreed on, said it was time for him to stop fighting and finally rest.</p><p>
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    <strike>He wanted to know if he was going to see Sirius, Remus and his parents for the last time, and he wanted to ask them if dying would hurt.</strike>
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    <strike>He also didn't want to use the Stone.</strike>
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</p><p>There were crackles in the nearby vegetation, but Harry just leaned against a tree and listened, hoping it was at most a unicorn and at least a hare coming back to his home on the ground. Unfortunately there were only two Death Eaters, perhaps Dolohov and Avery, arguing about him and how long it was taking him to meet the Dark Lord's deadline. Perhaps he will not come, said one, and the other cursed; how would they tell the Dark Lord this?! They would be tortured, at the very least. The two walked away through the forest, still fighting in whispers, going along a trail full of spider wires, and Harry followed behind them, confident that they would take him directly to Voldemort's outpost, as the Shearing Shack had been abandoned after Snape was killed inside. A small part of Harry, one that appeared after he saw the memories of the man who died as a martyr and who tried his best to keep the promise that the woman he loved made, despite having destroyed any chance of recovering her favor after to ally with the Dark Lord, wanted to know what happened to his body. Harry recognized at a glance the gigantic remains of spider nests, meters and meters of silk that the acromantulas of the Aragog family wove during the more than fifty years that they lived in the Forbidden Forest since the time that Hagrid released their father in the womb of the grove. He saw the worn tire tracks on the ground, and Harry wondered what end the Ford Anglia of the Weasleys had taken - the car saved his and Ron's life a time or two during the second year, but after that he never knew no car. He hoped it hadn't been destroyed in the middle of the war. In contrast, Aragog's nest and the acromantula family had been shattered, leaving a clean area where the largest web tangle had once been; Voldemort was standing in the middle, surrounded by some of his Death Eaters, clearly waiting for Harry to arrive and kneel to die, while others kept watch over Hagrid, who was tied tightly between two thick trees - Harry didn't want him, of all people, see that.</p><p>
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</p><p>But well, Harry got here, and on the way he learned and understood that you couldn't have everything, however much he or anyone wanted to.</p><p>
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</p><p>Harry took off his cloak and went into the clearing.</p><p>
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</p><p>Somewhere unidentified in the uninhabited territory of Antarctica, where the level in relation to the ocean was so high that the sky was always covered with endless blizzards, Romani Archaman sighed as he leaned back in the chair of the chief of operations control in the SHEBA room - he was tired, full of dark circles darker than Mash's hair and everything about him was aching for a good mug of da Vinci's magical coffee - and he looked at the holo screen filled with data, calculations and information in front of him. There were readings that indicated the possible appearance of a new Lostbelt in London between August 1980 and July 1987; it would be a pain to deal with, as everything involving Time, Humanity and Reality were, but the optimistic part of Romani <strike><em>that honestly should have been much smaller than it was</em></strike> said that there was no way this smaller Lostbelt - which could not even happen, given the reading levels he and his team were getting - worse than the Solomon Singularity. Yes, nothing would be worse than <em><strong>that</strong></em>. So why did he have a feeling that things would be just as stressful? Well, the only thing Romani could do about it was to prepare, do his best and hope that it was all a small possibility in a tremendously larger scope.</p><p>The doctor moaned softly, rubbed his dry eyes with his palms and went back to work. He definitely needed to sleep, urgh.</p><p>Badly did Romani know that Murphy's Law, a hated but just branch of Reality that applied to everything and everyone in the grand scheme of things, was listening to his thoughts with avid ears.</p><p>Things were about to get very interesting</p><p>
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</p><p>Meanwhile, in another part of the Chaldea Complex, a certain Fujimaru Ritsuka and his inseparable Pseudo-Servant Mash Kyrielight, along with a copious amount of Servants, eagerly await the Heroic Spirit EMIYA - or more precisely, a version of the Servant that has been invoked by Tohsaka Rin as Archer in the Fifth Grail War in a Reality where the Fuyuki Singularity of 2004 did not happen - served the lunch. It was westerners' day, and despite Gil's complaints and demands - the Archer, not the Caster - that day EMIYA had invested in a menu more focused on American countries than anything from the ancient Mesopotamian territories that the King of Heroes had ruled . It was generally agreed that EMIYA thrived more in the kitchen than anywhere else, and since the day he was summoned, no one complained more about Chaldea's food or tried to take the Servant out of his new territory, not that anyone had tried after taste the food he made with impressive speed and impressive talents for the first time, especially after the number of Servants in Chaldea rose from <em>just two</em> to the dozens.</p><p>Sometimes, the summoning Ritual gacha - and Ritsuka's luck - was both a blessing and a curse.</p><p>"So, Senpai ..." Mash begins, helping herself to a bunch of peas and mashed potatoes from her plate before turning her attention to Ritsuka, who was sitting across from her with a huge hamburger in his hands. "Did Doctor Romani say anything about the new London Lostbelt to you?"</p><p>Most of the Servants sitting around them now pay attention to the conversation, especially those who had some connection with Britain, however small it is.</p><p>"He said that the chances of it being something we need to fix are relatively low, but that we better be on standby just in case something gets out of hand." Ritsuka replies, biting into the soft bread stuffed with the best burger sauce he has ever tasted. Archer was a culinary god, really. "Other than that, he also said that preparations for the next summon are almost ready."</p><p>"It will be a new Rider, won't it?" Not that there weren't enough Rider Class Servants running around the compound - a few tables away, Iskandar sneezes hard and the people around him scream and try to protect their lunches from the flying spit and snot - but they did only a Servant Rider with a five-star rating, and no matter how strong Ozymandias was, he was not always the most suitable in the few missions where a power like his was needed. The problem was that the chances of a Rider of that classification being called up without a catalyst was one in a quadrillion, and that was the promising estimate. In Mash's skeptical and partially pessimistic opinion, the odds were not as good as da Vinci made it appear when he presented the calculations. "Do you have any idea who it will be, Senpai?"</p><p>"No." Says Ritsuka, licking the cheddar from his fingers and looking thoughtfully into the kitchen where EMIYA was beginning to prepare desserts between word and word with Mata Hari, who was helping with the dishes and cooking that day. "But it never hurts to try, right?"</p><p>Mash sighs with Ritsuka's eternal optimism and thinks he shouldn't have said it, but never mind. The more allies, the less problems they will have on missions and all that.</p><p>
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      <em>AVADA KEDAVRA!</em>
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    <em>Did I finally die?</em>
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</p><p><br/>The sky above him was completely blue, shining with a strange silver Santelmo Fire in place of the sun and scrawled by impossibly white clouds, so large and close that he had the feeling that he could reach out and touch them with the tips of his fingers. Harry then sat down and looked around, barely noticing that he no longer wore glasses and that he was dressed only in an impeccably white set of pants and shirt while his feet remained bare and at the mercy of the velvety touch of the grass. If that was the afterlife - the next big adventure, as Dumbledore said - then where were his mom and dad, Sirius and Remus? Where was his family?</p><p>
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    <strike>Why was he still alone?</strike>
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</p><p>"Because this is your afterlife, not theirs."</p><p>Harry turned around, finally realizing that he didn't have a wand in him, and found himself face to face with an absolutely beautiful woman. She had white blond hair, eyes as red and warm as flames, and wore a kind of thin, shiny dress that revealed the pale skin of her hips. Her hands were crossed in front of her, and she had a serene smile on her face as she looked at the disheveled and confused teenager in front of her, like many who had done the same thing before. She knew the circumstances of the boy's arrival, understood why he was there instead of being with his family, and regretted not being able to fulfill his specific desire, even if he did it where he deserved to earn such a privilege. The World was cruel like that, although this time and only because of the extraordinary and specific conditions surrounding the life and death of this child, there was a small concession that she could make in his name.</p><p>After all, Harry Potter, alone while alive, was a small Singularity, a paradox in the fabric of Reality between life and death in the fragile form of a simple human child. And now in death itself, that Singularity manifested itself as a powerful Rider with personal skills more suited to a Caster than any other Class of Servants. She couldn't wait to see how the Harry Potter's Noble Phantasm and Reality Marble would manifest.</p><p>"So ... where am I, exactly?" Asks Harry, intimidated by the woman's calm but powerful and charismatic aura, which made him think she was a unique mix of Madame Pomfrey, Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick. "I mean, it's obvious that there is more than one life after death and that this is supposed to be mine, but I just want to see my family. Can't I just go there?"</p><p>"Unfortunately, that is not possible. But there is a concession that is allowed to be made in exchange for your Saint Graph as a Grand Rider." She replies, and Harry frowns in confusion at the terms she uses. What in the world is a Saint Graph and what the hell is he into now? "You would no longer be a Servant connected to the Counter Force and would lose any power status you might have against the Beasts of the World, but you could return to life for an hour and thirty minutes before Reality notices the error and sends you back to here."</p><p>Harry didn't really like what she was saying, but ... Voldemort was technically still "alive". And dying like a sacrificial lamb had left a really bad taste in his mouth. An hour and a half was not much, but it should be enough for him to do the job and end it all at once, despite the strange conditions of that agreement. He could only hope that his body was close enough to the Dark Lord and hope he had a free enough line of fire. Harry bit his lip and looked at his feet before looking back at the woman.</p><p>"I accept." Finally he says, swallowing his nervousness and raising his head. "There are things I need to finish, people I have to say goodbye to. But when I get back, I want to know <em>why</em> I'm here and <em>where</em> exactly it is <em>here</em>. Is this good for you?"</p><p>"Your terms are considered acceptable." Agrees with the Major Grail Manifestation, which uses the face of Irisviel von Einzbern in the task of guiding the new Heroic Spirits from the Throne of Heroes. "See you soon, Heroic Spirit Peverell."</p><p>Harry doesn't have time to say anything about it, as the world has exploded in white.</p><p>
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</p><p>He remains immobile and tries his best not to breathe hard or open his eyes when he regains consciousness on the floor of the Forbidden Forest. It's difficult, but somehow he succeeds, especially when he hears the commotion of the Death Eaters around a Voldemort who apparently fell at the same time as Harry when he was struck by the Death Curse. He feels sadistically satisfied with this, and regrets that the bastard didn't really die with him, but Harry doesn't see much of a problem with that - Voldemort only has a soul thread keeping him on the side of the living, and Nagini is already with it's counted hours. Harry just needs to keep Tom busy long enough for the snake to be destroyed without too many complications, as he had a deadline and that deadline was really tight.</p><p>"Narcissa!" Growls Voldemort, and from the sounds Harry assumed he was being put on his feet. "Check Potter!"</p><p>"Yes, my lord." Responds the Draco Malfoy's mother, and Harry prepares for the woman's inspection, hoping that his imitation of the dead was really convincing, after all he didn't want to go back to wherever he went when he died without definitely taking Tom with him this time . He hears Narcissa Malfoy's light footsteps approaching and breathes as little as possible through his nose when the woman kneels beside him and brings her face close to Harry's ear. Her breath is hot when she whispers. "My son, Draco. Is he alive? Is he at the castle?"</p><p>Taking advantage of her hair hiding both from the vision of Voldemort and the Death Eaters, Harry mutters under his breath. She then stands up and promptly lies directly in the face of the Dark Lord and his followers.</p><p>If Harry still doubted the strength of a mother's love, those doubts died at that moment with just two words from Lady Malfoy.</p><p>
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</p><p>Blue crystalline light illuminates the Convocation Room while Ritsuka pronounces the arias necessary for the summon of a Servant. He has a frown and eyes closed in concentration, and everyone who observes the ritual behind the protective barrier watches him with different degrees of anticipation and concern, as he is there for hours, repeating and repeating the call just to be put on hold, for lack of better words. Da Vinci and Romani check the readings on the monitors with Caster Gil and Caster Cú following over their shoulders, while Mash and the Round Table watch the exhausted Fujimaru almost without blinking.</p><p>Something is very wrong with the magic of the ritual and they want to know what it is, but there is also Ritsuka to consider, and as a doctor and director of Chaldea, Romani always puts people's well-being above anything else, which is why he prepared to begin the process of interrupting the ritual.</p><p>
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    <strike>Do not interrupt yet</strike>
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</p><p>Archman's hand stopped inches from the communication button, and he looked at da Vinci, confused. Had he said anything?</p><p>
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</p><p>Okay, it definitely wasn't da Vinci, and the voice was too mature to be Mash's. Besides, it could very well be sleep deprivation; Romani shook his head and turned his attention back to the communication system, but just in case he spied the mana readings, and his eyes widened - the levels were high, and they kept going up! This was not supposed to happen, mainly because they are using a generic catalyst for the Rider Class, not a specific object! Before Romani could interrupt the ritual or alert any of the Casters that something was happening, the overload alarms on the barrier sounded, while the summoning circle erupts in an almost blinding glow of bluish white light characteristic of an explosion of concentrated prana, scaring all viewers, mainly because Ritsuka was literally standing next to the phenomenon. Romani can hear Mash and the Round Table shouting for Ritsuka and the team on the lower level computers, and can see from the peripheral vision of Vinci, Caster Cú and Caster Gil huddling over the consoles in an attempt to find out what the hell was going on in the through blunt mana and the white vapor of ultra-condensed magic, and Romani knows he should be helping in some way, but he can't take his eyes off the chaos behind the barrier, which trembles with prana pulses and desperate beats of Mash and Galahad. But all he can do is watch with wide eyes the exact moment when a black silhouette rises in the middle of the whirlwind of prana, its sudden presence abruptly ceasing the storm of magical energy in the Convocation Room.</p><p>Ritsuka is on his knees a few feet away from the Servant, and all that can be heard in the room is the breathing of humans and the buzz of Noble Phantasms that the Servants would not hesitate to use if the newcomer was not friendly. The hooded figure then leaves the circle and walks towards the stunned Fujimaru, and the tension in the environment increases tenfold when he extends a gloved hand to the Master and speaks for the first time since his arrival.</p><p><strong><em>“I am the Servant Rider. Are you my Master?</em> </strong>”</p><p>
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<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter One: Rider</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Harry arrives at Chaldea.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you very much, Runic, for your help in correcting the grammar of the fic. Seriously, this is going to save my life.</p>
<p>That said, I want to warn everyone that we are both going to take over the world and that's it.</p>
<p>Good Reading.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A lot of strange things happened in the life of Harry James Potter. Older and wiser men that he did not understand less than half as much as an orphan boy has gone through to have that kind of hardness and resignation in his eyes, and having said that, it is possible to add that Harry Potter's life got off track at the moment where a certain woman in a certain bar in a certain wizarding village on the outskirts of a certain castle dictated her fate to a certain old man.</p>
<p>It all started with a mother who defied the Dark Lord three times and died so that her son would remain alive. The result of this was a fourteen-year hiatus in a blood war, an orphaned child and a lightning scar. Ten years later, in 1991, a Hary Potter, famous for something he didn't even remember doing, steps for the first time on the grounds of Hogwarts and the magic of the place <em>sings</em>.</p>
<p>The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, located somewhere mountainous in the Scottish Highlands, has always been the right place for children desperate for a home, for a place where their strangeness would be accepted and encouraged, as the strangers of these children were a extremely special strange. And as with non-magical children, there is always one that stands out as a sore thumb among the other nine pale fingers.</p>
<p>Harry James Potter was that metaphorical thumb.</p>
<p>It starts the instant he shows the first signs of accidental magic when he was just a baby, and it becomes more and more evident over the years, as in the memorable event when Harry accidentally ended up on the school roof while running away of his cousin’s gang. His strangeness has always been a reason for rejection and hatred on the part of his "normal" relatives, and as if living in a grocery cupboard under a staircase since when he remembered it wasn't enough, Harry Potter's relatives have always made a point of reinforcing three things to the hateful nephew.</p>
<p>First: he was a freak of nature, and freaks of nature did not deserve new clothes, any kind of good food - after all this was exclusive for hardworking people like the Dursleys -, a decent room or anything that was remotely and affectionately owned by him . Everything Harry received was given with great caveats, and if he wanted something, he would have to work hard for it, even if it was some rejection from his cousin, Dudley Dursley.</p>
<p>Second: magic does not exist. Did the teacher's wig turn blue? It was coincidence, not magic. Did he run from his cousin and end up on the school roof? Harry climbed up there, didn't disappear with a snap, and resurfaced up there with another. Did he speak to the boa constrictor at the reptile house at the zoo? It was just Harry being the usual madman, nothing strange or magical about it. Magic definitely doesn't exist and if that word was mentioned on the Dursley residence grounds, by whoever was stupid enough to do that, Harry would end up stuck in his cupboard for the rest of the week, without food or the right to go to the bathroom so that the lesson was learned.</p>
<p>And third, but not least: Harry Potter was definitely and very obviously not loved. His parents died in a car accident and threw him over his relatives, so they didn't love Harry enough to worry about surviving. And don't even start with the Dursleys themselves; the only thing they loved apart from their quiet, normal lives was food, gossip and Harry Hunting. But Vernon and Petunia Dursley loved their son Dudley, more than they loved their drills and their gossip magazines, and Harry never failed to wish that at least one person loved him as Vernon and Petunia loved Dudley.</p>
<p>And then things changed a little when Harry was eleven.</p>
<p>He finds out that his parents are James and Lily Potter, and that they have fought a war against a crazy man. He learns that Lily Potter stood between him and the Dark Lord Voldemort, and that Lily's love left a powerful protection over him and his blood relatives, enough for the Death Curse to backfire and destroy the Dark Lord on the night of October 31, 1981, with Harry coming out of it all unscathed except for the lightning scar on his forehead.</p>
<p>A mother's love is a powerful thing.</p>
<p>But Lily received no credit for that.</p>
<p>When Harry Potter was in the first year of Hogwarts, something was hidden under the castle roof, and this was the first time that Harry was exposed to the disembodied spirit of Lord Voldemort, who inhabited the body of Quirinus Quirell in order to steal the Philosopher's Stone to return to life and restart his reign of terror over magical Britain. As you can imagine, this was the first time that Harry Potter faced him face to face and defeated him.</p>
<p>The second time was as bad as the first, if not worse, as there was a cursed diary, a possessed girl and a giant snake that killed with just one look. Again, Harry Potter dealt with this and survived. Ginny Weasley was forgiven for her crimes against the muggle-born population of Hogwarts, and Harry Potter learned that a piece of the Dark Lord lived in him, a small piece, but enough to give him the ability to speak with snakes.</p>
<p>Only much later, when he is back at his relatives' house, does the notion that he killed an ancient monster reach him. Only then does Harry have the first of many panic attacks.</p>
<p> </p><hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>As a Master, Fujimaru Ritsuka has met many personalities over the years. There was Caster Cú Chulainn, who taught him and Mash to fight as a cohesive unit instead of the inexperienced confusion they were thrown into one Singularity for the first time, there was Lancer Erekshigal and Archer Ishtar in the Singularity of the Age of the Gods, who taught him the importance of fulfilling a duty and the true meaning of love between humans and gods, and there was Mash herself, who taught Ritsuka the importance of being human. So when Rider reached out to him, Ritsuka could see that that Servant would be one of those personalities who would teach them something that would change everything.</p>
<p>His gray hood revealed only an angular chin and a glimpse of tulip-shaped lips, leaving the rest plunged into darkness, and Ritsuka wondered if Rider could see anything through that thick shadows.</p>
<p>"Are you my Master?" The Servant repeats in a flat voice of any anxious feeling, and Ritsuka comes out of his stupor and immediately grabs the hand of the Heroic Spirit, who pulls him up easily. Ritsuka had better answer soon, before the Servant dissipated.</p>
<p>"Yes, I am Fujimaru Ritsuka." And the set of Command Seals shines.</p>
<p> </p><hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>Compared to the next four years, the third time Harry went to Hogwarts was without a doubt the most calm of all. Sure, there was all the confusion with the alleged mass murderer, but honestly? Harry would give anything to go back to the days when his and his friends' biggest concerns were annual exams and summer homework. But then the servant of the Dark Lord flees from justice and returns to his master, and the world runs downhill.</p>
<p>The whole thing starts to get worse in the summer, when a group of Death Eaters attack during the Quidditch World Cup final in 1994, and it only rots more as the year goes on and Harry is drawn - and not because he wants - to the Triwizard Tournament. He is almost eaten by a dragon, almost drowns in the Black Lake and, to close with a flourish, is kidnapped along with a colleague to serve as an ingredient in the Dark Lord's resurrection ritual. Cedric dies, Harry learns some important things from Priori Incantatem, duels with Voldemort and somehow manages to return to Hogwarts with Cedric's body. He warns the competent authorities about Voldemort's return, but all he gains from it is a smear campaign and even more nightmares and the start of a serious case of paranoia and Post Traumatic Disorder.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strike>
    <em>But that's okay, because even though the Magic Community insists on keeping their heads firmly buried in the sand - the head of Minister Fudge being the deepest - they still have Dumbledore, who revived the Order of the Phoenix to fight Voldemort more once. It is not?</em>
  </strike>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strike>
    <em>If Harry had known what the old director planned, he would have packed his bags, mounted Buckbeak and fled out of the country as fast as the hippogriff's wings could go. But he saw nothing wrong with Albus Dumbledore's intentions, and that was one of the reasons that would lead him to die in the end.</em>
  </strike>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Then the fifth year came, and with it came the scandals in the Daily Prophet, the trial set to expel him from Hogwarts, Umbridge and her Inquisition, the Dumbledore's Army, the lessons of occlumency with Snape, the Department of Mysteries, the damn prophecy and Sirius falling through the Veil. It was not the first death of the new war, but it was the one that most impacted Harry, because Sirius was the closest he had to a fatherly relationship. His godfather was one of the last links with Harry's parents, and losing Sirius through a mistake by Harry himself hurt. It hurt because it showed how unprepared and childlike he was, for trusting the visions that Voldemort stuck in his head, since Harry always knew that Voldemort would use whatever advantage he could get his hands on to destroy him once and for all.</p>
<p>That summer, where the pain of loss makes Harry's heart bleed with an invisible cut while preparing and strengthening him for what is to come, he promises that he will destroy Voldemort forever.</p>
<p>No matter how, or how long it took, he would do it.</p>
<p>It was the least Harry could do for his godfather and a dear friend.</p>
<p> </p><hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>Arthur Pendragon was once a king in a prosperous kingdom that collapsed from the inside out after he died. But both he and his other version, Arthuria, carried Rhongominyad and came as close as a mortal could get to a divine state. And even if this particular version of Arthur was a full-fledged man and still carried Excalibur, he still remembered one thing and another about divine magic, enough to realize that the newcomer's aura was ... empty. You see, when Merlin was teaching the intricacies of magic to the Future King, the magician explained in detail about the auras of living creatures on this side of the world and the other. And all, without any exception, had a characteristic that set them apart and separated them from each other. For example, Arthur's aura exuded greatness; Merlin's, wishes for mischief. The aura showed what was most important in a person's personality, and for someone to have an aura like that of that Rider, something should have been brutally cut and erased from the very essence of their being.</p>
<p>This is so horrible and so sad that Arthur's stomach churns, and the King of Knights wants to cry.</p>
<p>No one should be like <strong>that</strong>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><br/>
When the protective barrier falls, the first thing that happens is Mash jumps into the space between the new Rider and Ritsuka with Lord Camelot at the ready and a furious scowl on her face. The Rider jumps back and dodges the sharp edge of the shield, the cloak barely moving when he jumps out of reach of the furious Shielder.</p>
<p>"That was very rude, miss." Says the Rider, extending his arm out of the cape's confinement. In his hand was a wooden staff, a foot of elderberry with an unknown core. "I understand that my ... appearance must have scared you, but that is no reason to try to kill me."</p>
<p>"Master, are you okay?" Mash does not dare take her eyes off the new Servant, still suspicious of him after all the spectacle that was the summons. The rest of the Round Table has accumulated around Fujimaru, and Mash can feel the Casters preparing their Noble Phantasms to provide support. "Did he hurt you?"</p>
<p>"No, Mash. It's okay." Assures Ritsuka, a little tense, knowing full well that Galahad would not hesitate to attack to kill if he had even a scratch. "Let's calm down, will we? I'm really fine, and we're really being very rude to Rider right now."</p>
<p>"Don't worry about it, Master. I've seen worse ways." Says Rider, a slight stream of amusement peppering his voice that definitely had a British accent. The wand and the leather-covered arm and silver-metal gauntlets disappeared again under the cloak; at no point did the hood fall. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Mash."</p>
<p>"Equally." Mash replies, still looking at Rider suspiciously. The buzz of the other Servants' Noble Phantasms disappeared as they also lowered their weapons, much to Ritsuka's relief. "I'm Servant Shielder, by the way."</p>
<p>Now that the hostilities were definitely resolved - at least for now - Ritsuka felt it was safe to signal for Romani and the staff to approach. Leonardo, always curious and vaguely cautious, was the first to approach the new Servant.</p>
<p>"Servant Caster, Leonardo da Vinci." The inventor walks around Rider, analyzing him with a face of confusion. "I feel like I never heard of you."</p>
<p>"Heroic Spirit Peverell, Servant of the Rider class." Gilgamesh's eyebrows go up, and Ritsuka bites his tongue to keep from asking what the Grand Caster knows about Rider. "I doubt it has, my legend is relatively new."</p>
<p>"Huhm ..." Da Vinci finally stopped hanging around and went over to Archman, who had a mana reading program running on the tablet. "Your mana levels are very good, and your magic is rank A. It also says that all your Noble Phantasms and personal and Class abilities are rank B + and above, except your luck, which frankly is horrible. You confirm, Rider ? "</p>
<p>"Yes. Especially the luck part."</p>
<p>Ritsuka has a feeling that Rider was not kidding.</p>
<p> </p><hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>The sixth year can be summed up by the words hell and conspiracy. Voldemort marked Draco Malfoy as the Death Eater and sent him to Hogwarts with the delicate mission of repairing a sink cabinet whose twin was at Borkin &amp; Burkes and, in parallel, murdering director Albus Dumbledore. And, as expected, Harry accidentally dug, discovered most of what was going on and tried to tell his friends and the Order of the Phoenix that Malfoy was marked and that he was up to something.</p>
<p>It is obvious that he was solemnly ignored.</p>
<p>While Harry tried - being "tried" the key word of all this proverbial can of worms - to deal with Malfoy's machinations, there was also a mystery that started in the worn pages of an old potion manual taken from the depths of a cupboard of supplies in the Hogwarts dungeons. Its yellowed pages were stained with ink that wove instructions better than those in the manual itself, and on the back cover there was a single sentence that intrigued Harry Potter and blinded him until the end of that year:</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>
    <em>This book is owned by The Half-blood Prince</em>
  </strong>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>There was a blinding glow of green at the top of the Astronomy Tower.</p>
<p>The silver pawn had failed in the main part of his mission, and so The Half-Blood Prince was the one who gave checkmate.</p>
<p>Albus Dumbledore fell.</p>
<p> </p><hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>Here is something that every man should fear and revere:</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>Power</strong>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>Here is something that every man should desire with all his strength:</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>Love</strong>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Here is something that every man must accept that is inevitable:</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>Death</strong>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>It all starts and ends with a man who fears death more than anything and a boy who is marked as his equal. It started on a cold Helloween night in Wales and ended on an equally cold night in a forest in Scotland. Seven is the magic number of perfection, and seven children touch seven objects that are containers of a soul broken into seven pieces.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strike>
    <strong>
      <em>Ring | Daily | Diadem | Medallion | Cup | Snake | Harry</em>
    </strong>
  </strike>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>There is a green flash in a clearing in the Forbidden Forest. An hour and a half after that, Lord Voldemort dies, never to be resurrected.</p>
<p>After that, Harry Potter falls into powder light.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, far from where hundreds of people cry and wonder what happened to the Man Who Conquered, a Heroic Spirit is born from an explosion of light.</p>
<p>In a way, none of them survive while the other is alive.</p>
<p>But only one of them has a chance to live it all over again.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Unexpected arrivals and lots of flashbacks !! In the next chapter: Harry is introduced to some people, he remembers others and Diarmuid enters the story!</p>
<p>Thanks for reading, and until the next chapter =)</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I wanted to use paragraphs, but some things don't really like to cooperate with me.</p>
<p>Either that, or I really am a dinosaur when it comes to technology.</p>
<p>Well, whatever. I hope this pleased you!</p>
<p>A kiss, Madu.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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